Friends and Family #44Adventures in the Fight Racket #25

Today's AdventureOriginal Caption:

Philadelphia -- Manager Frank 'Blinky' Palermo puts the Welterweight Championship belt around Johnny Saxton after he won the title from Kid Gavilan with a unanimous decision at Convention Hall in Philadelphia, October 20th. Gavilan, champ since 1951, sobbed afterwards that the fight was "fixed." (1954)

6 comments:

While other former fighters pride themselves on the big-name opponents they beat, the belts they won, Johnny Saxton openly trumpets himself as the man whose testimony helped send Blinky to the Gray Rock Hotel (about a decade after this photo was taken).

Considering how long Mr. Gray (aka Frankie Carbo) and Blinky ruled over the fight racket, I'd say sending them to the hoosegow was the most impressive victory any boxer could have claimed.

Unfortunately, I think only the Grim Reaper will manage to put the K.O. on the current overlord, Don King. He's had so many photo-finishes with Grand Juries I believe he's actually worn out the Justice Department's resolve for keeps.

I guess it shows my field of education, or at least dates me as a child of the 80s- whenever I hear the name "Blinky" Palermo I think of the German artist and his connections to German leftist politics of the 70s.

Such a strange counterpoint to the original from whom he stole his nom de guerre.

I encountered this in research I've done on fighters of that era. Imagine my surprise when I first Googled Blinky Palermo and discovered he was also a celebrated artist! Hey, they say nobody's all bad, right? :)

excuse me. I'm BLINKY's grandaughter... and I know 1st hand what happened and half this stuff is inaccurate. And Saxton never testified in Blinky's case so next before you go making flase accusation, learn what happened!!! THANKS

Well, I think Tommy O' was pointing out a claim that Johnny Saxton has made over time; he was not commenting on the merit of said claim, one way or another. Other than that, the only factual assertions in this post are those of the original caption . . . and I don't write those things; I just quote them.

For the record, I got nothing bad to say about Blinky or Mr. Gray. Compared to the feudal society Don King has lorded over for the last 30+ years, their tenure as the overlords of professional Boxing was an ethical Arcadia.